How to create a theater style seating chart

With Ticketleap’s Reserved Seating feature you can create a theater-style seating chart, which will be explained in this article, or a table seating chart for your event. Your ticket buyers will be able to choose their own seats or have the system choose the best available seats for them.

You will build your seating chart from scratch within Ticketleap so have your venue’s seat map or layout handy! You will build each section, give it a name and a color, assign desirability and choose the seat alignment. Then, within each section you will add each row.

Once your seating chart is complete you will add it to your event, assign ticket types and be ready to start sales!

From your dashboard, click on Seating Charts under Tools. Then,click Create a Seating Chart and give it a name.

There are lots of objects you can choose to give your event goers a better idea of your venue’s layout. For a performance arts theater put a stage at the top of the editing box to build your sections around.

Build The First Section

To build a section click Add Section. This example seating chart has 6 sections; left orchestra, center orchestra, right orchestra, left balcony, center balcony and right balcony. I’m starting with the Center Orchestra which I will name, give a color and assign desirability.

By assigning desirability, you allow your ticket buyers to use the “best seats available” function to choose their seats. For this to work properly, you need to assign different desirability for each section. 1 is the most desirable and 10 is the least desirable. Since the center orchestra section is the most desirable section in my venue, I’m going to give it a 1, the highest rating.

Build The Rows

Next add the first row to your section, which you will name, add the number of seats and assign its seat numbering. If your seats are numbered from right to left, check reversed. The first row you build will be located closest to the stage, so closest to the top of the editing box.

Continue to add rows until the entire section is constructed. The system will help you along by automatically naming your next row. Once the section to complete, click save changes.

Align The Sections

Return to the chart, and align the section with the stage, and save changes again. When moving your sections, the arrows on the sections should be pointing toward the stage. To add a new section perform the same steps as you did for the first section including adding the rows. Or, to speed up the process you can also copy the section you just made and then make any adjustments you need to the new section such as it’s name and desirability. Continue this process until all of you sections are built and your Ticketleap seating chart looks like your venue.

Add and Subtract Seats

If you need to edit your rows or add or subtract seats, select the section and then click edit. To edit the entire row click edit. To add or subtract a seat, select the seat you want to delete or add on to and you will be shown editing options.

Create Ticket Types

When your seating chart is correct it’s time to add it to your upcoming event. First fill in the basic event details such as location, date and time. Then create your ticket types.

By creating and assigning ticket types, you’re telling the system only certain tickets types are valid for certain sections.

If each section is a different price you need to create a ticket type for each section. If you have different pricing for certain ticket types (i.e. adult, senior, child) then you’ll also need to create ticket types for each one.

For this seating chart I have 3 ticket types; adult, senior and child. I also have an orchestra and a balcony. My orchestra sections are more expensive than my balcony sections. Therefore, I will create 6 ticket types in total: orchestra - adult, orchestra - senior, orchestra - child, balcony - adult, balcony - senior and balcony - child.

Attach Seating Chart and Assign Ticket Types

To attach the seating chart to the event and assign the ticket types to the seating chart, first click the seating chart tab in your event dashboard. In the drop down menu, select the correct seating chart.

Since I have different pricing for my sections I will UNCHECK the Buyers can use any ticket type for any seat box. If all of your seats are the same price you can leave this box checked. Then, to assign ticket types, hover over each section and check off which ticket types can be used for each section. Then click Save Changes.

Before you start sales check out the list below for important things to keep in mind about seating charts.

Important Things to Know About Reserved Seating

Once a ticket is sold, you cannot edit your seating chart. Make sure your seating chart is completely accurate before starting sales.

General Admission & Reserved Seating cannot be mixed. Your event needs to be one or the other.

Do not hold seats at the venue level as this will affect every single date/performance. If you need to hold seats do so using the Held Seats tab on the event’s dashboard to hold seats only for the date you need.

Choose Your Own Seats is not available on smartphones, tablets, or touch-screen monitors. When using an iOS device to sell tickets at your event the seats will be assigned by "best available" in each section. To use Choose Your Own Seats at the door, use a laptop or desktop computer. If your ticket buyers are using a mobile devices their tickets will be assigned by "best available" for the section they want. To choose their own seats they must use a laptop or desktop computer.

When price mapping your theater-style seating chart, only a section can have multiple tickets types (child, adult, senior). You cannot assign ticket types by a single row or individual seat.

Assign ticket type to sections/tables. This is how the system knows which sections cost what.

Accessible Seating

To create Accessible seating, click on an individual seat and choose the accessibility that applies.

When you select an accessibility, that seat will only be available for purchase through the box office. The ticket buyer looking to purchase that seat will need to contact you and you will need to process the payment through the box office over the phone or at the door at the event.

Also, once you make a seat accessible, that is applied at the venue level, so it affects all events and dates using that seating chart.